Cancer is responsible for one out of every four deaths in the United States. About 1.4 million people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2007. Of that number, more than 550,000 are expected to die of the disease.
Many strategies for the treatment of cancer currently exist, such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery including the complete removal of cancerous tissue as well as cytoreduction and palliation. In a number of cases, cancer treatment strategies comprise adjuvant therapies such as surgery and chemotherapy. In cytoreductive procedures, for example, any abnormal tissue remaining after the surgery can be treated with chemotherapy.
The inherently destructive nature of cancer therapies often results in harmful side-effects such as damage to healthy, non-cancerous tissues. The cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents, for example, can result in anemia, alopecia (hair loss), nausea and vomiting, damage to nerves leading to burning, numbness, tingling or shooting pain. Chemotherapy can additionally precipitate immunosuppresion and myelosupression thereby increasing a patient's chances for infection and other disease.
The efficacy of some chemotherapeutic agents can be enhanced by heating or inducing hyperthermia in the cancerous tissue being treated. Generating and maintaining a constant elevated temperature over a large area of the body, such as the peritoneal cavity, however, is difficult and time consuming. Moreover, maintaining an elevated temperature over a large area of the body can affect and potentially damage non-cancerous tissues and organs.